Saturday, December 11, 2010

Deck The Halls by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark


Synopsis:

The mother/daughter team of two of Americas top mystery writers team up for the first of their Christmas series.  Regan Reilly, the young private detective who stars in Carol Higgins Clark's book and Alvirah Meehan, the lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, from the pages of Mary Higgins Clark's many books, hook up for the first time. 

When Regan's father, Luke Reilly, is kidnapped the two detectives team up to save him and his driver, Rosita Gonzalez.  With the help of Regan's mother, Norah Regan Reilly, the famous mystery writer and Jack Reilly, head of the NYPD Major Case Squad (no relation by the way) they set off to discover the identity of the kidnappers and save the victims before it's too late.

What goes together better than Christmas and a well written mystery?  I for one sure do, it combines two of my loves in life and I couldn't be happier that there are wonderful authors out there catering to that love.  Now I've never read a book by either Mary Higgins Clark or her daughter Carol Higgins Clark before, so I feel a little bad for starting with them on this book.  I feel like I skipped from 8th grade graduation straight to high school graduation.

The book itself is pretty simple, two amateur sleuths get together and with a group of friends save the day, just in the nick of time.  What's different though, other than the setting, is that these two authors blend their voices seamlessly.  There doesn't seem to be any conflict with where the story was going or any odd jumps in logic that sometimes comes with team ups.  This is a light hearted mystery that even with the suspense never takes itself too seriously which allows the read to be fun. 

Now I'm not going to go into too much detail about the story itself, other than what I put in the synopsis, but I can say that more than one character finds love in this book and to answer my opening question, the only thing that may be better than a Christmas mystery is Christmas love.

5 comments:

Michelle (Red Headed Book Child) said...

I have this checked out from my library. My mom just got done reading it too! Thanks for the review.

Sheila (Bookjourney) said...

I love stopping in to your posts Ryan and seeing the Christmas related reads! I believe I have read this one....

Thank you for doing a guest post for me while I was away!

Staci said...

Sounds like a great Christmas book Ryan. I've read both of these authors but never a book with both of them.

Marce said...

I have read almost all of Mary Higgins Clark books except her Christmas reads, I am considering the Christmas Thief and this one.

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Not an author I'm familiar with though my sister loves her books, I'll have to see if she has a copy of this for next year's challenge.